12 background mistakes in famous TV shows that made it past the editors
How does a modern latte end up in a fantasy feast scene set centuries before coffee culture existed? Set designers, camera operators, entire editorial teams checking the same footage repeatedly. And still, somehow, a cup slips through.
Following are some of the most infamous slip-ups fans have caught over the years, the ones that made it all the way to broadcast.
Game of Thrones
Right there in front of Daenerys during a Season 8 feast scene. A modern latte, plain as day, one that only resembled a Starbucks cup rather than being an actual branded one. HBO eventually admitted the latte was a mistake, joking that Daenerys had actually ordered herbal tea. The cup got quietly scrubbed from later streaming versions.
Game of Thrones (2)
Two weeks later, same show, different prop crisis. Plastic water bottles turned up near Samwell Tarly’s foot and Ser Davos’s chair during the finale. Fans caught both bottles within minutes of the episode airing.
:
Downton Abbey
A plastic water bottle, perched on the mantelpiece behind the cast, decades before plastic bottles existed in wide use in the UK. Not even in an episode, just a 2014 promotional image. Quietly deleted from Instagram and the show’s own press site once fans noticed.
Vikings
A vision scene, supposedly set along the Seine river in France. Actually filmed in Scotland, complete with pine forests and mountains that don’t exist anywhere between the English Channel and Paris.
Vikings (2)
Background Sami characters wear “four winds” hats throughout the series. The problem is that the style didn’t emerge until the 18th century, roughly a thousand years after the show’s own setting.
Friends
Rachel says she’s 29 in one episode. Clearly 30 in another. Her pregnancy timeline shifts in ways that don’t quite align across seasons, either. A decade-long sitcom run makes small details easy to lose.
Breaking Bad
The blue tape holding Walt’s replacement windshield in place keeps vanishing and reappearing across multiple episodes in season three, a continuity slip nobody on set seems to have flagged.
Gilligan’s Island
Not the deep-jungle production it appeared to be. The show was actually shot at CBS Radford Studios in Studio City, and in several episodes, including season two’s “The Friendly Physician,” the real CBS building sits clearly visible in the background of what’s supposed to be a remote island.
Stranger Things
Hopper’s police car pulls up to Hawkins Town Hall. Before he even steps out, the sound crew’s boom mic is clearly reflected in the driver’s-side window.
Modern Family
Season 6, episode “Rash Decisions.” Haley talks on a phone that’s visibly upside down for the entire scene, one of television’s most common prop errors and one of its most overlooked.
Outlander’s timeline slip
A 1743-set storyline puts two characters on trial for witchcraft. Britain’s Witchcraft Act had already decriminalized such prosecutions eight years earlier, in 1735, making the entire trial legally impossible by the show’s own timeline.
NCIS’s fake phone call
In one scene, Abby appears to be making a call on her computer screen, though the display shows her using a calculator instead of an actual dialer, a detail noted in fan mistake compilations but harder to independently confirm frame by frame.
The bottom line
None of these slipped through because anyone was careless. Television moves fast, budgets are finite, and even the most expensive productions in history eventually run out of time to catch everything before the cameras roll.
Ask us! What questions do you have about content, strategy, pop culture, lifestyle, wellness, history or more? We may use your question in an upcoming article!
Related:
- 12 iconic rock songs that wouldn’t fly today
- The most controversial songs of the ’60s: Do you agree?
Like MediaFeed’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was syndicated by MediaFeed.co.
